Petroleum refineries produce hydrocarbon streams that contain aromatics such as benzene. However, government regulations limit quantity of the benzene in products including gasoline. Benzene content comes from both synthesis of the benzene during refining and natural occurrence of the benzene in production.
Techniques used to reduce amount of the benzene synthesized fail to provide the benzene content as low as desired. Therefore, benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) splitters provide for removal of the benzene, which may then be converted or used as an intermediary to make other chemicals. Commercial application of any process associated with recovery of the benzene depends on costs. Prior BTX splitters utilize procedures with undesirable costs due to being complex, energy intensive and capital intensive.
Therefore, a need exists for methods and systems for splitting of aromatic-containing streams based on constituents therein.